For mass-market manufacturers, a new car sitting on a dealership lot for more than a couple of months is bad news. Well, this Lotus Evora just sold after having been on the lot for seven whole years.
The 2014 Evora was unofficially the oldest new car for sale in the U.S. before finding a new home on Long Island last month. Offered by Secor Lotus of Connecticut, it sold for about $70,000, Lotus told Popular Mechanics recently, or about $20,000 less than its MSRP.
It has been on the dealer lot for so long that its factory warranty actually expired. But Steve Plona, Secor Lotus’ general manager, hasn’t just let it rot.
He told the outlet that he over-inflated the (original) tires to try to preserve them as much as possible, he let the engine run every once in a while, and he changed all of the fluids except for the synthetic oil, to allow the new owner to change it out after its 1,000-mile break-in period ended.
Also Read: Lotus Evora Enters Last Year Of Production, New Hybrid Sports Car Set For 2022
Although the engine was run occasionally, the odometer shows less than 100 miles and it was stored in a temperature-controlled garage where it was hooked to a trickle charger. So it’s still in pretty good condition.
How the Evora, a car whose most recent version Jay Leno recently deemed one of the best handling cars of all time, came to sit for so long as it did?
“It was a protest to some schemes of the pricing people had,” Plona told Popular Mechanics. “There were a lot of dealers that were deeply discounting those cars. I thought that was hurting the brand.”
Indeed, dealers were reportedly offering discounts similar to this one way back in 2014, when the car was actually new and still had a warranty. So Plona doesn’t regret keeping the Evora onhand for as long as he did.
The British sports car manufacturer counts North America as its best region and Plona said his sales were great in 2020. And who knows, if its new owner has a place to store and another decade’s worth of patience, it might end up fetching serious money on Bring a Trailer someday.
